Project: AtomSwarm

Developed over a one year research project at Middlesex University's
Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts,
AtomSwarm is a platform for sonic improvisation based on the swarming
behaviours seen in large groups of insects or birds.
Within these collectives, each individual operates under a set of very
simple rules, but the swarm as a whole appears to exhibit
astoundingly complex and adaptive behaviours, capable of responding
rapidly to new environments.

In addition to the physical rules governing their movements and interactions
within the Euclidean swarm space (extended from Craig Reynolds'
Boid algorithm),
each agent's behaviour is determined by a static
genome
and a set of virtual
hormones.

In live performance, the
swarm's behaviour is manipulated by a human conductor, who can
affect its population size and interactions but can never exercise
complete control; his instructions are always subject to the same
constraints as the other physical laws of the swarm environment.